Bristol

A TAXI driver raped a 16-year- old girl as he took her home from a night out, a jury was told. Liban Abdi, 31, denies the offence and a charge of sexual assault.

Opening a trial at Bristol Crown Court yesterday Virginia Cornwall, prosecuting, said Abdi, of School Close, Eastville, attacked the teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, as he drove her home from a night out at the city's Syndicate nightclub on October 28 last year.

The hearing was told one of the girl's friends left the taxi at a Premier Inn hotel with a man she had met.

CCTV images, shown in court, showed the alleged victim staggering by the defendant's car with her friend who was trying to look after her.

Mrs Cornwall said: "She was drunk. The factors of her age and circumstance made her vulnerable. He was aware of that fact and he took advantage of that fact.

"She was upset and wanted to go home. That is something she will tell you and, interestingly enough, that is something the defendant will also assert.

"No one is questioning whether there was sexual contact – there was sexual intercourse. The primary issue is whether it was consensual or not."

Mrs Cornwall said after Abdi drove away from the victim's friend, she climbed into the front of the car to get closer to the heating.

It was at this point he started stroking her thighs.

"She climbed into the front and that, it seems to him, was the green light for sexual touching to start," said Mrs Cornwall. "According to him and his account it was invited. She says she didn't want him to and she didn't know how to deal with it."

In a video interview played to the court, the teenager told police she was too scared to make Abdi stop.

"I was too scared of what he would do if I grabbed his hand away," she said. "He could have hit me or killed me. I looked out the window and faced away."

The girl said the cabbie then pulled into an unknown car park.

"He said get into the back and I said I didn't want to, he then said 'get in'," she said. "He got me to lean down across the chairs."

She told the interviewer she was terrified and did not want to try and escape because she thought the driver would be able to catch her.

The teenager was questioned about how much she had had to drink and said that during the course of the night she had consumed about ten drinks in five hours, a mixture of vodka and Cokes and wines.

Mrs Cornwall said Abdi told officers that the teenager was asking him to have sex and demanded he pulled the taxi over for that reason.

The trial continues.
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Leeds

One of Leeds’ biggest private hire firms has called on the industry to improve, after new research revealed standards throughout Yorkshire are among the worst in the UK.

Arrow Cars recently commissioned Populus to conduct an independent nationwide survey into the public’s opinion of the taxi and private hire industry. The results show customer dissatisfaction is widespread throughout the country but highest in Yorkshire.

Now Leeds-based Arrow Cars is launching the ‘Arrow Promise’ - a new gold standard aimed at raising standards and building a better, fairer, more transparent private hire industry.

Arrow Cars Chairman David Richmond explains: “I have to confess the research made pretty gloomy reading and in my opinion, the industry needs nothing short of a step change.

“Only a fifth of respondents in Yorkshire believed that taxi/minicab drivers are trustworthy and two thirds said they’d been overcharged in the past. Plotted against the national results, the results from the Yorkshire region were some of the worse.

“As a private hire firm which prides itself on professionalism and transparency, the public perception of our industry as a whole is a worry.

"We’ve worked hard to ensure our own house is in order, which is why we’ve pulled in the big contracts with the likes of Leeds Bradford, Manchester and East Midlands airports. But we want to start turning wider public opinion around – hence our development of the ‘Arrow Promise.’”

40% of those surveyed in Yorkshire (against 29% nationally) said they had paid more than they were originally quoted so a key part of the ‘Arrow Promise’ is a commitment to more honest and transparent fares.

The firm has introduced a guarantee that the price quoted on booking is the price customers pay. Rather than booking a car and taking a chance on the meter, Arrow will text customers the cost of their journey on booking and, provided they don’t alter their trip, the price quoted is the price they pay.

Another aspect of the private hire firm’s pledge is the promise of a clean and tidy car with a courteous driver after over a quarter of Yorkshire survey respondents said they had been picked up in an unacceptably untidy or unclean cab.

Arrow Cars recently launched a new executive service to give customers the chance to experience a more luxurious taxi experience and raise standards throughout the industry.

Arrow E Class, which includes a growing fleet of Mercedes E Class vehicles, runs alongside the company’s traditional private hire business, which has a fleet of 500 cars nationwide.

David Richmond explains: “Our E Class service, which comes with uniformed driver and complimentary 4G WIFI, puts top quality travel within the reach of a high proportion of our customers.

"Once customers start getting used to travelling at this level for only a fraction more money, it can’t fail to raise standards across the board.


"We’ve always believed in doing things differently and more professionally at Arrow and we’re determined to do our part in changing the public perception of our industry so survey results in the future tell a different story.”
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Manchester.

Manchester cab driver , who refused to pick up two men who flagged him down in the city centre has been ordered to pay more than £1,000.

Michael Tung, aged 32 of Gurney Street in Ancoats, was found guilty of improper conduct during his absence after he failed to turn up to a hearing at Manchester Magistrates’ Court on November 20. He was fined £500 with £562 costs and a £50 victims of crime surcharge.

Two men complained to the city council’s licensing unit that the driver had refused to pick them up after they flagged him down in Withy Grove near the Printworks in the city centre after a night out in April this year.

He refused to take them to an address in Salford, just outside the city centre, and drove off but then stopped nearby to pick up another passenger who had flagged him down.

Manchester licensed black cab drivers have to pick up passengers for local journeys unless they have a good reason not to do so, such as the passenger being drunk, abusive or not having the means to pay for the journey. They are also not allowed to refuse to take them to Greater Manchester destinations within a ‘compellable area’ – which is any journey that ends within an area four miles from the city boundary.

When invited to an interview, Tung said that he would not pick the passengers up as they were standing within a no stop zone, set up by the City Council to avoid congestion problems late at night. There are two designated Marshalled ranks provided outside the Printworks for black cab drivers.

However, Tung had already stopped within the zone when he refused to pick up the passengers, while the passengers he went on to pick up after driving off were also within the no stop zone.

Cllr Kate Chappell, Manchester City Council’s executive member for the environment, said: "Hundreds of thousands of people will be visiting the city centre over the next few weeks, either for Christmas parties or to visit our world famous markets, and black cabs are an important means of making sure they can get back home safely.


"As this case shows, we will not tolerate black cab drivers refusing to pick passengers up unless they have good reason to do so. Anyone who feels they’ve not received a good enough service from a Manchester licensed driver should contact us and our officers will investigate."
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